The ‘curse’ of Slumach’s gold

Looking north up Pitt Lake into the region where the source of Slumach’s gold is said to lie. The area contains some of the most rugged, dangerous terrain in B.C. Waite Air Photos Inc./globairphotos.comTBA
/ PROVINCE

Brothers Brian, left, and Rick Antonson have been enthralled by the legend of Slumach’s gold since they were kids, and helped write a book on the subject. They recently filed two prospecting claims on land where they believe the gold is located. Arlen Redekop/PNGArlen Redekop
/ PROVINCE

“They call it B.C.’s Bermuda Triangle — where monsters appear and humans disappear. But they don’t vanish at sea. They go missing on land in some of this province’s wildest, roughest terrain.”

— Province reporter Jon Ferry on the hunt for Slumach’s gold, October 1983

In September 1890, a native man named Slumach fatally shot another man, Louis Bee, in front of several others who were fishing along Lillooet Slough near the Pitt River.

The anonymous reporter who wrote a story about the shooting for New Westminster’s Daily Columbian owes more than a little to the purple prose of Western novels popular among big city folks at the time:

“Without a moment of warning or any preliminary sign of anger, Slumach instantly levelled his gun at Bee and fired. Just before the discharge of the piece Bee held up his hands and begged Slumach not to shoot.

“Death was instantaneous, and Bee fell without a groan, and lay ­sweltering in his blood, while the murderer coolly proceeded to reload his piece.” Slumach eluded police for about a month and a half, engaging in at least one shootout with pursuing constables as he hid in the wilds.

He surrendered in late October, was tried and hanged in New Westminster on Jan. 16, 1891. According to the Daily Columbian the drop was eight feet, five inches, with death coming by a broken neck.

Those are the facts. The legend of Slumach’s gold came next.

There was talk that for as long as a decade before his encounter with the hangman, old Slumach (nobody knows how old he was) would show up from time to time in frontier New West laden with gold nuggets.

He would spend his money on booze and women — payment was required for the latter because Slumach was reportedly an ugly, disagreeable man. Then he would head back into the wilds, telling no one where he was going.

After his death, the story grew to encompass a gold mine, lost amid the mists, the thick woods and the impossibly rugged terrain north of Pitt Lake.

Though the newspaper account of his hanging made no mention of Slumach’s last words, legend has it that he muttered, “Anyone who finds my mine will die” just before the gallows trap door was sprung.

Despite any curse, people have been searching for the mine ever since.

Province reporter Jon Ferry and photographer Gerry Kahrmann were part of a team that went looking for the lost mine in the fall of 1983. They hired a helicopter and spent several nights in the high mountains. They were the second Province team to give it a try. Reporter Bill Ryan and photographer Ray Munro headed to the woods in 1952, and also came back empty handed.

Ferry’s account said at least 30 people were said to have died looking for the mine — a figure that seems credible given the treacherous terrain, never mind any legendary curse.

B.C.’s Fred Braches runs a website (slumach.ca) that includes everything on Slumach’s gold from the early newspaper accounts to the current status of the search.

Brothers Rick and Brian Antonson were preteens when they first heard the legend. As adults — with co-author Mary Trainer — they wrote the book Slumach’s Gold, first published in 1972 and then updated in 2007, selling some 20,000 copies.

The Antonson brothers are now in their mid-60s and retired from their day jobs — Rick was president of Tourism Vancouver and Brian was associate dean of broadcasting at BCIT. So now they have nothing but time to look for Slumach’s gold.

The pair spoke to us last week, just a day after returning from several days out in the wilds. They think they’re getting close now — they were planning to head out searching again this week.

“Slumach did exist, he was hung, and his name was eventually associated with not just gold, but gold that could still be there,” Rick said. “Wherever it is, it’s in terribly difficult and dangerous geography. The cliffs rise right out of Pitt Lake in some places, and when you’re hiking in the woods, the trees are big even in areas that were once logged. It’s a reminder that in British Columbia we have some of the worst areas in Canada in terms of the ruggedness, the danger.”

Why would two grown men keep on with such a quest?

“We can’t shake it,” Rick said. “We’re tethered to the legend and the whole mystery ... and that small possibility that there is gold up there.”

Adds Brian: “There are so many characters involved in this. As the chroniclers of the whole thing, we have a lot of fun with it; this has been a great lark for us.”

And maybe it won’t be a mystery for much longer — the Antonsons said they are in the process of filing prospecting claims at two likely spots based on their recent explorations.

As for Province photographer Kahrmann, he’s not among the believers.

“The most plausible explanation for Slumach’s lost gold mine, was that he was jumping gold prospectors coming back to New West and making off with their gold,” Kahrmann said.

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